Nam’s family thought it would be like before; they’d be gathered and interviewed and then let go. Gov. On that particular operation, I carried out the order as it was issued. “I did feel that what I was shooting was historic, especially the carnage. A member of the U.S. Army then threw a grenade into the tunnel, killing everyone except Cong, who was injured by the shrapnel and still bears a scar next to his left eye.When we sat down, Cong thanked me for coming to the museum, for “sharing the pain of our people.” He told me it had been a complete surprise when the troops entered the village. John Bell Williams of Mississippi said his state was “about ready to secede from the Union” over the Calley verdict.
In newspaper articles around the world, one word became entwined with Calley’s name: scapegoat. “Then he will be forgiven and his mind will be relaxed.” Indeed, the home of every survivor I interviewed had an altar in the living room, where incense was burned and offerings were made to help the living venerate dead family members.It seems unlikely that Calley will make that trip. Forty years ago today, The Plain Dealer published photographs of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. My Lai Massacre Vietnamese citizens photographed during the My Lai Massacre, March 16, 1968. No need to register, buy now! An American soldier burns houses during the My Lai massacre, March 16, 1968, in My Lai, South Vietnam. On March 16, 1968, U.S. Army soldiers acting on orders from their commanding officers massacred several hundred innocent Vietnamese civilians. This image later appeared on the front page of the An officer training candidate looks at pictures made by Ronald L. Haeberle, a former Army photographer, that appeared in the appeared in Nov. 20, 1969, issue of the An American soldier stokes the flames of houses that were burned during the massacre in My Lai on March 16, 1968.Ronald L. Haeberle—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty ImagesA group of civilian women and children before being killed by the U.S. Army during the massacre.Ronald L. Haeberle—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty ImagesTwo Vietnamese children on a road before they were shot by U.S. soldiers on March 16, 1968.Ronald L. Haeberle—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images When I asked him if the publication of his pictures from My Lai changed the course of his own life, his response was characteristically muted. A Vietnamese man, knelt down on the ground, watches with horror as the massacre unfolds. Two musicians from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, released a recording called “The Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley,” which included the line, “There’s no other way to wage a war.” It sold more than a million copies. “Blood from the nearby bodies splashed onto my body. A present-day photo of the fields and water buffalo surrounding My Lai, collaged with a photo of a U.S. soldier firing an M-16 during the 1968 massacre. He almost certainly killed relatives of the people I spoke with in Vietnam. In front of each is a plaque with the name of the family that lived there and a list of the members of that family who were killed.Inside the museum, items that once belonged to the people of Son My sit in glass cases: the rosary beads and Buddhist prayer book of the 65-year-old monk Do Ngo, the round-bellied fish sauce pot of 40-year-old Nguyen Thi Chac, the iron sickle of 29-year-old Phung Thi Muong, a single slipper of 6-year-old Truong Thi Khai and the stone marbles of two young brothers. Find the perfect My Lai Massacre stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. It was trying to survive,” said Lawrence La Croix of Utah, who was only 18 when he went into Son My as a Second Platoon squad leader. U.S. soldiers relax by the side of the village, just before carrying out the massacre. See more ideas about Vietnam war, Vietnam, American soldiers. The massacre began when one soldier — whose name has never been confirmed — suddenly stuck a Vietnamese man with his bayonet. “He might have got sidetracked.”Tran Nam, the Son My villager who hid under a bed as a 6-year-old while his family fell around him, is now 56 years old. Haeberle told me that he saw an old man with two small children walking toward U.S. troops, their belongings in a basket.
We’re throwing the bodies down the wells, we’re burning the villages, and we’re wiping them off of the map.”It would have been a compelling message for young men who had spent the previous months getting attacked by invisible forces. “The Army is just a part of day-to-day life here,” the longtime Columbus journalist Richard Hyatt told me. In the case of the My Lai Massacre, justice never came.The My Lai Massacre: 33 Disturbing Photos Of The War Crime The U.S. Got Away WithThe My Lai Massacre: 33 Disturbing Photos Of The War Crime The U.S. Got Away WithMark Oliver is a writer, teacher, and father whose work has appeared on The Onion's StarWipe, Yahoo, and Cracked, and can be found on his Bog Bodies: See The Pre-Egyptian Mummies Made By NatureThe Faces Of America: 16 Stunning Colorized Portraits Of Ellis Island ImmigrantsWhat Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The MostWomen huddle together during the massacre, desperately trying to keep their children safe.
Passersby could drop a coin into a tube that led down to O’Dell’s “grave,” with the proceeds going toward a fund for Calley. It might have been Meadlo’s bullets that struck Truong Thi Le’s daughter or his Zippo that burned Tran Nam’s home.The day after the massacre, Meadlo stepped on a land mine and his right foot was blown off. The bodies of Vietnamese civilians who were killed by U.S. soldiers rest on a road in My Lai, Vietnam, on March 16, 1968. (He did not respond to interview requests for this story.) One is a delicate needlework portrait of a woman, gracefully reaching an arm toward the sky.The suddenness of the violence at My Lai was especially terrifying.